Hi I have a question that hopefully some of you more technical people can help me with. I recently discovered that across fresh installs of Windows 10, the store remembers under "My Apps", what apps you've "purchased (free apps)" and when. I have never used an online account, only offline local accounts and have never signed into the MS Store app. I had assumed and read that most identifying IDs are generated at first boot. What sticks across installs that MS Store can pick up to assume it's the same computer?
If your computer uses any Microsoft product or service, it will be registered in a Microsoft account with Your computer identification code. If you use any Microsoft service (live.com, hotmail.com, msn.com, bing.com, skype.com, OnDrive.com etc.) and log in, your computer will be registered there. All this is the same ie your Microsoft account. Also all apps, what You have used with Windows 8 - 8.1 are also there if You have ever loged in to one of these Microsoft accounts at least once.
That's the thing, I've never logged into an MS account. What is this computer identification ID that persists across fresh installs? It is generated from the motherboard or a combination of hardware?